Head of Business Development, Middle East

Responsibilities

• Serve as Shield AI’s senior District representative across the Middle East, engaging senior military, government, and industry stakeholders while ensuring operational and regulatory compliance.
• Develop and execute a unified Middle East District strategy across CENTCOM, the GCC (excluding Saudi Arabia), and bilateral frameworks.
• Own district quota and sales performance, including pipeline development, forecast accuracy, order intake, and opportunity execution from shaping through close.
• Direct and coordinate Country Business Development Leads across multiple markets.
• Drive district growth across V-BAT, X-BAT, ViDAR, and Hivemind.
• Coordinate Business Development, Government Relations, Program Management, Legal, Contracts, PX, Marketing, and Customer Operations teams.
• Oversee active district opportunities, maintaining accountability for performance, timelines, customer satisfaction, and strategic growth.
• Build a data-driven district pipeline and stakeholder engagement strategy.
• Develop and manage partnerships, resellers, and strategic industry relationships.
• Identify and mitigate political, procurement, operational, and strategic risks, providing executive visibility into performance and growth.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in defence, military operations, business development, capture management, or international government relations.
• Deep technical and operational understanding of V-BAT, Hivemind, and X-BAT, including payload integration, training, sustainment, and deployed operations.
• Experience across multiple international defence, aerospace, or national security markets and complex government procurement environments.
• Ability to lead distributed, cross-functional teams across multiple countries and cultures.
• Executive presence with experience engaging senior military leadership, Ministries of Defence, U.S. Embassies/ODCs, CENTCOM/GCC stakeholders, and strategic industry partners.
• Track record of pipeline development, capture strategy, and closing complex, high-value defence opportunities.
• Arabic and English proficiency.
• Bachelor’s degree or relevant military education preferred.

Nice-to-haves

• District leadership experience across allied defence markets, CENTCOM, the Middle East, or the GCC.
• Relationships with CENTCOM/GCC, Ministries of Defence, senior military leadership, defence procurement organizations, and strategic industry stakeholders.
• Experience leading international defence captures, Foreign Military Sales (FMS), or multinational procurement programs.
• Operational understanding of ISR, autonomy, unmanned systems, AI-enabled capabilities, and modern defence technology.
• Experience managing consultants, resellers, strategic partnerships, or industrial participation/offset initiatives.
• Familiarity with CENTCOM/GCC operational frameworks and allied capability development.
• Experience in high-growth, fast-paced, internationally distributed environments.
• Ability to attain or existing relevant national security clearance.
• Master’s degree in a relevant field.

Benefits

• Opportunity to work at the forefront of AI, autonomy, and next-generation defence systems.
• Mission-driven, entrepreneurial environment.
• Direct impact on international growth and strategic defence partnerships.
• Collaboration on complex operational challenges.